


Circle Game

by aeternamente



Series: Carousel of Time [1]
Category: Lizzie Bennet Diaries
Genre: F/M, Friendship, Gen, Manipulation, Siblings, relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-24
Updated: 2012-12-24
Packaged: 2017-11-22 06:32:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/606855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aeternamente/pseuds/aeternamente
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A series of scenes surrounding the tragedy of Bing and Jane.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Carpooling

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter was originally a stand-alone piece on my Tumblr, but it has since grown into a four-chapter series with a cyclical POV pattern (hence the title of the series, which of course comes from the Joni Mitchell song).

Bing somewhat reluctantly pushed the button to put the top up on his convertible. As a general rule, no matter how hot it was outside, he preferred the wind in his face to the stale, manufactured coolness of air conditioning. And Jane even agreed with him on this in principle, but when she had her hair up (as she did today) in some elaborate style, she did not appreciate it being ruined by passing air currents. For several days, she had not complained—only glancing regularly and worriedly in the side mirror—but Bing had picked up on it eventually, and now put the top up whenever she was in the car. Really, it was a small price to pay for having her bright presence by his side as often as was humanly possible.

He exited the car and quickly spotted her, literally sunny-looking in a floaty pale yellow dress. A sunflower pin beautifully complemented the copper hue of her hair, which was twisted into a thousand little curlicues at the back of her head. How she had managed this intricate style was beyond Bing's ability to imagine. She was always a work of art—his Jane.

She hadn't seen him pull up, which disappointed him, because she usually jumped up eagerly the moment he arrived, smiling fit to burst. Instead, she was talking with someone—a guy about their age. As Jane talked and gesticulated with her usual animation, this stranger leaned toward her, his hand resting on the brick wall several inches closer to her shoulder than Bing would have preferred. But Jane didn't seem at all phased by his closeness, his obvious interest. Looking at the two of them, Bing might have assumed they were dating, if he didn't know any better.

Losing no time, Bing strode toward them, and when he was a few yards away, Jane noticed him, grinned, and came to meet him, extricating herself from her current companion. Jane lifted her face to give him what he was sure she meant to be a brief greeting kiss, but that was not enough. Wrapping his arms about her waist, he caught and held her lips a few seconds longer than was usual or necessary.

Breaking away, Jane blushed and looked down. "Bing…" she chided softly, "we're in  _public_."

Bing dropped his arms from her waist, feeling ashamed. That had been a blatant show of possession, and that was not how he ever wanted to treat Jane.

"Bing, this is Charlie," Jane said brightly, gesturing toward the stranger. Bing nodded, and tried to find a smile that didn't seem forced. "We went to high school together," Jane continued, "and now he's back visiting family."

"Well, I won't keep you," Charlie said politely. Bing noted with some satisfaction the jealousy in his eyes. "It was nice seeing you again, Jane."

"You too, Charlie. Keep in touch, okay?"

Charlie nodded, then turned to leave. Bing and Jane turned toward the convertible. As they walked, Bing could not ignore his guilty conscience. "Look, Jane," he said, "I'm sorry about—"

"It's fine," Jane said in a way he recognized as Jane-speak for, "It's not fine at  _all_." Bing didn't know what to say to this, so he said nothing, and opened the passenger-side door for her. The smile she gave him as she climbed in was ostensibly meant as a reassurance, but it rang false, and stood in clear contrast to the easy smiles she had given to Charlie just moments before. They drove home in silence and the stifling artifice of the air conditioning.


	2. Consolation

Caroline looked up from her laptop at the sound of footsteps, wondering if Darcy had decided to emerge from his room and be sociable. But it was Bing. Shoulders hunched and eyes downcast, he slumped into the couch on the far side of the room. Caroline suspected that there was only one thing in this hole of a town that could make her brother look like that—something with red hair and wide baby blue doe eyes and an innocent smile that Caroline wanted to slap off her pretty little face. But she suppressed that violent instinct, closed and set aside her computer, and took a seat next to her baby brother.

"All right, Bing, tell me what's wrong."

"Nothing," Bing said with a sigh. He didn't even bother looking up at her.

Caroline exaggeratedly mimicked Bing's slumped posture and lowered her voice. "I'm Bing Lee, and I'm the worst liar in the world."

This got a small smile from him, which quickly faded as he seemed to be deciding what to say. At length, he settled on the obvious: "It's Jane."

Caroline wondered if Jane had her hair up in that stupid milkmaid braid now, and how it might feel to grab it give it a good strong yank.

"What did she do?"

Bing looked nervous, like he didn't want to speak ill of his perfect girlfriend. "It's probably nothing…" he muttered quickly. "I'm just overreacting."

"It's  _something_ ," Caroline insisted. "You're obviously upset about it."

Bing sighed heavily. "It's just…" he hesitated, "I was picking her up from work today, and she was talking to this guy—I guess he was a friend of hers from high school—but he was obviously flirting with her, and she just…  _let him_." He threw up his hands in a helpless gesture. "I mean, she was probably just being nice…" Bing added quickly.

Caroline couldn't hold back a skeptical "Humph." Bing eyed her warily. Caroline checked herself. She knew that what she was about to say would crush him, but she also knew that it needed to be said. Still, she affected a greater amount of hesitation than she really felt. "You know, sometimes…"—a beat—"No, I probably shouldn't say…"

"No, what is it? I want to hear what you think."

Another beat. "Sometimes, I wonder how serious she really is about you."

As expected, upon hearing her words, Bing had look of a man who had just been punched in the gut.

"Oh, Bing," Caroline said, pulling her brother into a hug. He clung to her like someone about to drown, and she could feel the tightness of his clenched jaw against her neck. She rubbed his back in circular motions like she always used to do when he scraped his knee or hit is head and came crying to her as a little boy. "I know you really liked her," She used the past tense deliberately, "and I know this is hard for you…" She pulled away to reclaim eye contact, "but if she's not as invested in the relationship as you are, it's better that you know  _now_ , before you really get hurt."

"Do you really think she's not invested in the relationship?" Bing asked, looking more than a little bit desperate.

Another beat. A frown. "I can't say for sure," she said. "You know her better than I do, and you're the one who has to decide what to do about this. If you want, we can go back home to LA and forget any of this ever happened. But it's up to you—it's your call."

Bing nodded uncertainly. Caroline knew that passing the decision off to Bing was as good as making the decision herself. He was notoriously bad at making judgment calls like this (one of his few flaws as a med student), preferring to trust the opinions of his closest friends.

Speaking of which, she needed to make sure Darcy was in her corner on this one. But that could wait—Bing needed some serious cheering up.

"Tell you what," she proposed. "I'll have the chef make Hawaiian pizza for dinner."

This got a reluctant smile out of him. "You're willing to do that for me?" he teased.

"I might ask for basil and artichoke on half of it…" she conceded. "Oh! And we'll watch a movie—whatever you want."

He raised his eyebrows. "Batman?"

Caroline gave an exaggerated sigh and rolled her eyes. "Oh, fine."

This made him laugh a little. And his smile even lingered for a few moments afterward.

He'd be fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If this scene reminds you a little bit of the scene in Emma where Emma (somewhat deviously) convinces Harriet to refuse Robert Martin's proposal, it's because I may have used it as inspiration. (Shh, don't tell!) That "I won't tell you what to do, but here's what to do, but seriously, you need to decide on your own" ploy just seemed like something Caroline would do.


	3. Certainty

"Are you actually reading  _War and Peace_? I didn't think anyone ever did that outside of a literature class."

Caroline's words made Darcy lose his place on the page. "People do," he answered without looking up.  _Lizzie does,_  he added to himself. "See? I'm reading it right now. That is to say, I  _was_."

He marked his page, closed the book, and set it on the side table as Caroline seated herself on the arm of his chair. Darcy didn't like when she did this. It meant he had to crane his neck to maintain eye contact—something he normally almost never had to do because of his height.

"We need to talk," she said. "It's about Bing."

Darcy sighed. "We're not going to convince him to leave, if you're contemplating that again." This was a well-worn conversation. "And at any rate, I find I like it here better than I expected." Darcy lowered his gaze. He knew that Caroline was wickedly adept at reading people, and he didn't want her to guess the reason behind his wish to stay. Though by the way she laughed, he guessed that his attempt at concealment had failed.

"Or, more accurately, you find you like a certain auburn-haired Bennet sister?" Caroline teased. "Tell me, are we to expect a Fall wedding? When can I tell Gigi that she's going to be an aunt to a  _fine-eyed_  little Darcy baby?"

Darcy's face burned just as it did every time Caroline teased him this way about his apparently inevitable future life with Lizzie. But the truth, as Caroline knew as well as he did, was that Darcy was no closer to making his feelings known to Lizzie than he was at their first meeting, before such feelings ever existed.

"And won't Mrs. Bennet be pleased to have such a  _rich_  and  _handsome_ son in law?" She imbued the words 'rich' and 'handsome' with Mrs. Bennet's distinctive Southern accent. "And Lydia!" She gasped in feigned rapture. "Won't it be such a joy to have her staying with you at Pemberley over Christmas,  _sock-sliding_  all over the place?"

"You wanted to talk about Bing?" Darcy asked pointedly.

"Oh yes, of course! Poor guy!" Caroline sighed. "He saw Jane flirting with another man yesterday when he picked her up from work, can you believe it? He's really upset."

Darcy paused a moment to consider this new information. "Are you sure that's what happened?" he asked uncertainly. From his experience with Jane, this didn't seem like something she would do.

"Well, Bing was trying to make his excuses for her, too," Caroline said with a roll of the eyes, "' _She was probably just being nice,_ '" she said in that low, sullen voice women often use to imitate men. "But you know Bing, he's always trying to make the best of things. I wouldn't be surprised if it's worse than he's letting on."

"Why would she be flirting with another man?" Darcy asked. "She always seemed perfectly happy with Bing."

"Yes, well maybe she's getting bored," Caroline guessed, then, holding up an anticipatory finger: "And before you ask why she doesn't just break up with him, I think we both know the reason for that."

"What do you mean?" Darcy asked with a frown.

"Well, being with my brother doesn't exactly hurt her financial situation," she said with a quirk of her eyebrow.

Darcy shook his head. "I've never seen any evidence that Jane cares about Bing's money."

"Well we've seen plenty of evidence that her mother does," Caroline countered, "and Lydia too, for that matter.  _Some_  members of the family may be better at hiding it, but that doesn't mean they don't have ulterior motives, too."

The use of the plural here made Darcy pause, but he soon waved off his suspicions. He doubted that Jane cared about the money, but he _knew_  that Lizzie didn't. How many disparaging remarks had he heard her make about the way wealthy people lived? She couldn't care less if Jane married someone without a penny to his name.

"We might be able to convince him to leave if he believes Jane doesn't really care about him," Caroline said.

Darcy sighed. "That might be the best course of action, assuming we were sure of Jane's indifference."

"She's not right for him. We both know that. Her family, her lifestyle—she lives in a different world than us."

Darcy could feel his jaw tightening almost involuntarily. This argument held just as true for Lizzie as it did for Jane. He'd allowed himself to forget this far too often.

"You know I'm just worried about him," Caroline continued. "He's my brother, and I don't want to see him get hurt. I know you would do the same for Gigi."

Darcy winced. Caroline knew very well that Darcy had spectacularly failed to protect Gigi just months before. He felt that failure very keenly, and could not deny Caroline her sense of duty to protect a younger sibling.

But he needed to be absolutely certain that Bing needed protecting.

"I will keep an eye on the situation," he conceded. "I would like to believe that Jane's feelings are genuine, but if they aren't, I agree that it would not be in Bing's best interests to stay here."

Caroline smiled. "Always so methodical," she said with a shake of her head. "But thank you. I appreciate it." She kissed him on the cheek and left.

Darcy turned his attention to the copy of  _War and Peace_  sitting on the table beside him. For about a minute or so, he engaged in a staring contest with the volume, as if he could see her teasing, intelligent eyes staring back at him, challenging him. At length, and with grim determination, he picked up the book and crossed the room to return it to the shelf where he'd found it.


	4. Conversation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the final chapter--Jane's POV at Bing's birthday party (my take on Jane's "indiscretion").

Jane paused for a moment in the middle of the room. Bing was chatting with some friends she didn't know. A part of her felt like she  _should_  be able to slip into the spot next to him, be introduced, and join the conversation. Wasn't that a girlfriend's privilege?

But she'd been on the point of trying that maneuver a few times earlier this evening, and upon catching his eyes in those instances, she'd noticed an expression on his face that, coming from him, was alien to her—hesitant, cautious,  _closed_. It might be a better idea to wait until she could get him alone. Unfortunately, it was his birthday party, and it didn't seem likely that his other guests would leave him alone any time soon.

Instead of attempting to approach him again, she instead moved to the opposite side of the room where a row of linen-clothed candlelit tables was set up. Most of them were inhabited by Bing's college friends that Caroline had introduced her to before, but she avoided those tables. She was getting tired of being flirted at by guys who weren't Bing. Instead, she seated herself at a table occupied only by Darcy, who sat morosely nursing a glass of red wine.

"Hey, Darcy," Jane greeted him.

Darcy looked up, surprised. "Hello, Jane," he replied, his voice coming out even more stilted than normal. He didn't lower his gaze after speaking as she might have expected, but instead seemed to be examining her. Jane thought she might understand what Lizzie meant when she complained about his scrutinizing stare. It was more than a little bit unnerving.

Jane racked her brain to come up with something to say. "I—I saw you dancing with Lizzie earlier…"

Darcy blinked and nodded, then transferred his intense stare downward to his wine glass. After a moment, he took a generous swig.

_I take it the dancing didn't go very well._  Jane sighed. Lizzie's attitude toward Darcy had never been particularly friendly, but it had taken a steep downturn since George had shared his story with her (and the internet at large) earlier in the week. Jane wouldn't put it past Lizzie to call Darcy out on his past interactions with George, right there in the middle of dancing with him.

For her own part, Jane was still unsure of what to believe. She liked George, and it was nice to see Lizzie happy with someone, but it was still difficult for her to believe that Darcy was as bad as all of  _that_. Sure, he wasn't the most sociable of beings, as evidenced by the grand total of  _two words_  he'd spoken since she'd joined him at the table, but she was convinced from her own observations that everything he did, he did sincerely, and with no intent to harm.

"Are you Jane Bennet?" A voice called Jane out of her thoughts.

She looked up, trying to find a convincing smile. "Uh… yeah, I am." She was being addressed by a tall, snappily dressed man with sandy-blonde hair.

"Brian Willis," he introduced himself, shaking Jane's hand. "Caroline tells me you're into fashion…" He took a moment to exaggeratedly look her up and down. "…not that I should be surprised by looking at you. I must say, that dress is  _stunning_  on you."

Jane giggled. She would be distressed by this obvious flirtation if it wasn't equally obvious that Brian was gay. As it was, she decided to go with it. It was just so nice talking to someone who wasn't either  _too_  interested, or (like Darcy) not even interested in a decent conversation. "Well, I do try my best," she said modestly. "Do you work in fashion, then?"

"Yes, I work with ModCloth in LA."

Jane's eyes widened. "Oh my God, you do? I am such a big fan, you have no idea."

"Well, I certainly enjoy my work," he said with a smile. Then, offering his hand to help her up, "Now let me see you give me a twirl."

Brian drew Jane's hand over her head as if partnering her in a dance, and Jane obediently spun around.

"Oh,  _very_  nice," Brian complimented.

Jane gracefully ended her twirl in a little curtsy, and giggled again. "I usually only do this in front of my mirror at home," she admitted.

"Well, all that practice has paid off. You spin very elegantly."

Jane suddenly remembered her manners. "Oh, do you know Darcy—?" She probably would have said more, but as she looked at Darcy, she was caught off guard by him staring at her again, this time with a pronounced frown. Jane got the distinct impression that he disapproved of her, but she couldn't think why.

Darcy stood. "We are not acquainted," he said.

"Nice to meet you," Brian said a little uneasily, but still with a smile as he shook Darcy's hand. "Are you a friend of Bing's?"

Darcy gave a stiff nod and was silent for a moment, still frowning. "If you'll excuse me…" he said, and he abruptly walked away.

"Now  _there's_  a charmer," Brian said sarcastically.

"He takes some getting used to," Jane rationalized, "but he's really not so bad when you get to know him."

"I'll take your word for it." Brian laughed. "Hey, I should get going. I promised my boyfriend I'd dance with him. But it was a pleasure to meet you."

Jane smiled. "You too."

As Brian left, Jane looked over toward the corner of the room where Bing was still talking to the same friends. She sighed. Hopefully, she would soon be able to get to the bottom of whatever was going on with him, but that would have to wait until she could talk with him alone.

She was getting really tired of waiting.

* * *

_Yesterday, a child came out to wander,_  
Caught a dragonfly inside a jar,  
Fearful when the sky was full of thunder,  
And tearful at the falling of a star. 

  
_And the seasons they go round and round_   
_And the painted ponies go up and down_   
_We're captive on the carousel of time;_   
_We can't return, we can only look behind_   
_From where we came_   
_And go round and round and round_   
_In the circle game._   



End file.
